There is a website called “BurningQuestion.com” where a few people in the marketing world believe that asking the right question will spark a marketing revolution. Here is what it says on the burningquestion.com website:

“What questions will spark a revolution?

Asking the right question can take us places we never thought possible. It can uncover truths. It can change an industry.

So, what questions aren’t we asking ourselves as marketers? We have one in mind we’d like to share with you. We call it The Burning Question.

“… Join the revolution at their seminar at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in June 2010.”

“Jim Stengel is now an adjunct professor at the UCLA Anderson School of Management and President/CEO of The Jim Stengel Company, LLC. As the former Global Marketing Officer of Procter & Gamble, he oversaw an $8 billion advertising budget and had organizational responsibility for nearly 7,000 people.”

You don’t have to guess that there are already a lot of great questions being posted on this site, plus discussion about whether they are the right questions!

Some of the (better) questions:

“Is marketing science or art?”

“Do corporate advertising campaigns work?”

“Why isn’t there more realism and attention to implementation in this profession?”

“Consumer time spent is a poor proxy for media allocation. Has anyone really figured out media mix modeling in the digital age?”

My personal favorite was by Tilly Pick:

“Why do we so religiously follow shiny metal objects every time they glitter in the sun and seem to abandon all sense of thinking?”

You can imagine based upon the title of this post that I have an answer — or maybe that I think I KNOW the “burning question.” My burning question might be a rephrase of the last one: Why do we make marketing decisions based upon intuition, not facts?

Do More With Your Data.

SIGMA Marketing Insights is a boutique marketing services firm obsessed with the customer experience, and driven to turn data into a powerful tool that will deliver more relevant, personalized interaction and engagement across all channels.